


Partners In Crime

by Caffeine_and_CompSci



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 10:23:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20424401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffeine_and_CompSci/pseuds/Caffeine_and_CompSci
Summary: My version of how Bruce and Selina’s reunion should have gone in 5x12.





	Partners In Crime

**Author's Note:**

> All edits are just fixing typos. Sorry!

Her feet slapped the wet concrete, echoing the sound of her heart as she ran along the rooftops of the Narrows. Her leather shoes molded to her feet which typically made the sound imperceptible unless you were listening for them. Unfortunately the rain made her usual soundless steps sound like a herd of trampling elephants. 

_Slip. Slap. Slip. Thud._

She kicked off a ledge, vaulting over a twelve-foot alley to slam onto the opposing rooftop. Behind her she heard the familiar whooshing sound of his cape. 

_Run. Keep going. Don’t stop. Keep going. He’s after you. Almost there._

Arms wrapped around her, the iron grip barring her escape and swinging her up into the air like a rag doll. 

“Caught you.” The voice rasped into her ear, the sound breathy and intimate. The arms held her tighter, pressing her back into his front, radiating heat along her spine.

“Let. Me. Go” she snapped, struggling against his restraining arms. Her voice was hard and unyielding. She didn’t allow herself one ounce of emotion, not one sign that he still affected her. He  _left_ her. He had no right to see. 

“_Please_, Selina. Just hear me out,” he pleaded, sounding so desperate, so lost. She was taken back to a staircase above the GCPD where she listened to his torturous thoughts, his self-inflicted blame.

_Maybe_ ... No. 

“Why should I do that Bruce?” she spat angrily, her pity giving way to rage. She pushed away from him violently, ripping herself from his warmth, pushing that stupid cowl off his face. He  _left_ her. Like Ivy. Like her mother. Why should she listen to him when he was never there to listen to her? 

“Where have you been these last 10 years? Ten years! Without any contact, without any notice. You left a stupid  _note_ claiming to _love _me and you  _left_!” Her voice caught at the end. Shattering. 

“I  _do_ love you!” He interjected venomously, as if the notion that he might have been lying or mistaken was absolutely abhorrent. 

_“Do?!” _

“Selina please. You don’t understand. Let me explain.” And there was that lost, desperate tone. The one that made her crawl back to him time and time again. 

_I will always be there for you. _

Bullshit. 

“Understand what? How you left to go ‘find yourself,’ how stifling your stupid money and your stupid life were that you abandoned everything, abandoned  _me_, to avoid it. I understand that you wanted to protect me, but I didn’t want protection. I wanted  _ you .  You were  all I had.”  _

“ Leaving wasn’t an escape, Selina.” He tried to add, struggling to fit a word in edgewise. 

“Then what?!” She demanded. “What was more important than us? Than me?” Her voice grew quiet. Sad. “What were you running towards that made leaving me behind so easy?”

“You think it was easy?!” It was his turn to be angry. “It killed me to leave you behind. You and Alfred are the only ones left that I love and look at the two of you. You were _shot_. You almost _died_.  You tried to _kill yourself_. Bane _broke Alfred’s back_. He almost died. My love was dangerous for both of you.” 

“So what? You left? We went god-knows-where for ten years. We never heard anything from you. Where were you?”

He took a deep shuddering breath, running his fingers through his hair. He turned slightly away, predicting her anger and shying from it “I went to Nanda Parbhat.”

_He did what?! _

“You did what?!” she shrieked. 

“I’ve spent the last ten years disassembling the League of Shadows. I’ve travelled the world, seeking out its members, resolving the matter through violent and nonviolent means. I needed to ensure that no one would threaten your safety ever again.” 

“Bruce! You went to a country which was essentially run by the man you murdered! Do you have a death wish?!” And there she had gone. All her defenses had crumbled. Stupid. Self-Destructive. Idiotic. 

She stared up at him as he stared resolutely back, not answering the question. Her hand lifted without her consent, coming to rest in his hair. 

His body lost a rigidity she hadn’t noticed he was carrying and he sagged against her. 

“Please, please, please...” he mumbled the pleading litany under his breath, clinging to her. His arms crossed around her back, fingers digging into her hips, arms squeezing her tightly. 

_Damn it_.

“What do you want from me?” She asked brokenly, scared of his response, caving once more to his charms. Remembering what it was like to be with him, those happy moments she had tried so hard to repress. 

He cooked her a meal, waiting for hours as she mustered up the courage to face him. He stood at her side as she suffered in the clinic, aching for death. He set up a date in the middle of a post-apocalyptic Gotham, making time for the two of them as the world fell apart. Always supportive. Never faltering. 

“You.” 

“No.”

It was a knee jerk reaction. 

_ Don’t let them back in. They hurt you once before. They’ll do it again.  Ivy. Barbara. Mom. Bruce.  _

Bruce shriveled. 

“Sorry,” he whispered, releasing her, stepping back, those walls closing up, snuffing any hint of emotion from his eyes. 

“We can’t go back” she said firmly. “I can’t forget.” 

“I get it,” he said anxiously. Anyone else would think him a rock, but she knew him too well. He wanted to be anywhere but here. She could read him like a book. 

He took another step back, but he lunged forward, hand grasping at the body armor that covered his forearm, stopping him from retreating forwards

“But we can go forwards.”

Hope crept into his face, lightening those eyes she had once loved so much. 

“I’m not your girlfriend again,” she said, unstable. “You have to earn that right back.”

He nodded. He expected as much. 

“So what are we now?”

“Friends?” she proposed, sounding unsure. 

“We’ve always been so much more than that,” he said.

“Partners in crime, then?” 

“Partners in crime.”


End file.
